"We buy our milk either form a local supermarket which is one that has an aligned chain or from the corner shop in the village," Paice replied.

Hill added: "And do you know how much you pay for it?"

Paice replied: "No because my wife buys most of it, but I have checked with her where it comes from."

Maybe Mrs Paice should be in-line for a job in the next reshuffle.

Mary Creagh MP, Labour’s shadow environment secretary, said Paice was "completely out of touch with reality".

"Farmers and consumers will be shocked that he doesn’t know the price of milk when people are struggling to pay for their weekly shop and there’s a crisis in the dairy industry," she said.

“At the dairy summit tomorrow, Jim Paice will call for farmers to get a decent price for their milk - the trouble is, he is so incompetent he hasn’t a clue what it should be."

However National Farmers Union director of policy Martin Haworth was a bit more sympathetic.

"Not knowing the exact price of a pint of milk is very common," he said. "Our own research shows that most people don’t know the price but most would be willing to pay more, provided farmer’s get a fair price.”